A Bloody Stupid Emotion
by buffyandspikefan
Summary: 9Rose friendship, romance Two scenes from the Father's Day episode, showing why the Doctor is so angry with Rose other than the fact she may have ended the world. Characters not mine, but will be returned in their original packaging.


**Part One**

"Your wish is my command."

How true that statement was. He had known how terribly this course of action could go, and yet was powerless to stop it. He knew that when Rose Tyler set her mind to something, she would accomplish it, no matter how impossible it seemed.

It was one of the things he loved about her.

That daft, stupid emotion was what had gotten him into this mess.

Yes, after all of these lifetimes of kicking around the universe with these wonderful, horrible, challenging, simple humans, he had finally let that complicated emotion set in. He, the Doctor, the last of the Timelords, cared for someone. She was his best and only friend, and she had just used him in the most despicable, selfish way possible.

So, yeah, he was more than a little angry with her.

He couldn't help but glare as she nattered on about her father's many get-rich-quick schemes, of tonics and solar power, and felt his resentment grow.

She glanced at him, and he could see in her eyes that she knew she had done something wrong, but just didn't want to cop to it.

She gave him a vague smile. "Look, I'll tell him you're not my boyfriend."

As if that was the reason that he was angry with her, that she let her father believe their relationship was something it was not. He crossed his arms and fixed her with his icy stare. "I said travel with me in space, you said no, then I said time machine..." She had never wanted to have adventures with him. She had used him.

"It wasn't some big plan, I just saw it happening and thought I can stop it."

He smiled without mirth. "I did it again, I've picked another stupid ape..."

He knew that hurt her by the look on her face. Good.

"I should have known. It's not about showing you the universe, it never is. It's about what the universe doing something for you." The universe could sod off for all he cared, he was upset that she had traveled with him for all this time, experienced things most people never would, and made him actually care about what happened to her, and it was all for nothing. It wasn't about being with him, it was about what she could get out of being with him.

"So it's okay when you go to other times and you save other people's lives, but when it's me saving my dad..."

"I know what I'm doing, you don't. Two sets of us being there made it a vulnerable point..."

"But he's alive!"

"My entire planet died, my whole family! Do you not think that it never occurred to me to go back and save them?" He was not self-serving with the universe, and it hurt that he held the potential to save everyone in his hands, but that to do that would inevitably destroy everything. He was the grown-up about it, and she was nothing but a child. Then again, he was 900-years-old, she was but 19.

"It's not like I've changed history! Not much. I mean, it's not like he's going to be a world leader or stop World War Three or anything."

"Rose, there's a man alive in the world that wasn't before. An ordinary man. That's the most important thing in creation. The whole world's different because he's alive!" He had to make her understand...

"Would you have him dead?"

"I'm not saying that..."

"No, I get it! For once, you're not the most important man in my life," she threw at him.

That resonated in him in a way he didn't like. Was she insinuating that he felt threatened that she was willing to try anything to save her dad? That he was trying to be difficult so that she would have to stay with him? That he needed her more than she needed him? He was the one that had stupidly risked everything letting her go on this trip, and now she was throwing his emotions back in his face to show how little she cared? His ancient blood boiled. "Let's see how you get along without me, then, give me the key."

The shock was plain on her face.

"The TARDIS key. If I'm so insignificant, then give it back."

"Alright, I will." She reached in her pocket, found it, and slammed it into his hand.

"Well, you've got what you wanted, so that's goodbye then," he said, heading toward the door.

"You don't scare me," she snapped, circling around him to cut him off at the door. "I know how sad you are. You'll hang around outside the TARDIS, waiting for me."

She was doing it again. Throwing it in his face that he cared more about having her along than she cared about being there. That he needed her more than she needed him. He turned to go.

"And I'll make you wait a long time!" She slammed the door behind him as he walked off.

He stalked off down the street, anger and betrayal coursing through him. He'd show her. He'd go to the TARDIS, get in, and go off to parts unknown, maybe Barcelona, and never look back. Forget all about Rose Tyler. Then when he was gone for good, she'd be sorry...

No, he wouldn't. He couldn't just go off and leave her there, trapped in a time that wasn't her own. All because of that bloody stupid emotion.

He turned the key to the TARDIS, intending to go inside, start the engines, at least make her think that wasn't just hanging about, waiting...

But when the door swung open, the most awful sight greeted him. There was no console, no time stream, nothing.

Just an empty police call box.

Something terrible was happening.

And there was only one thing in the world he was concerned about.

"Rose!"

**Part Two**

Such a short amount of time had passed, and yet everything was in danger. Sure, he had found Rose, but now they were trapped inside a church with Reapers clawing around outside, consuming all of humanity. No, not all of the humanity, all of the universe.

All because he had been stupid enough to let his love for Rose override his rational thinking.

He had destroyed the universe. Cheers.

He had been busy, trying to get the universe out of this mess, but he had also been avoiding the cause of all of this.

"Here, you there, Doctor!"

He snapped to attention, seeing Jackie Tyler standing there. "What?"

"Can you look after Rose?"

He smiled. "I've been doing just that and look where it's gotten us."

She frowned. "What?"

"Never mind." He straightened. "Yes, Jackie Tyler, I will take care of your daughter."

She gave him a strange look. "I've got to see where Pete's gotten off to."

He turned to the baby Rose. "Don't suppose I can convince you to not take any jobs at shops?"

She smiled and it was like seeing the sun come out from behind a cloud. And it still had the same affect on him.

He smiled back. "I didn't think so. Now Rose, you're not going to bring about the end of the world, are you? Are you?"

The adult Rose walked up behind him tentatively, her face a mask of worry. He wanted to quell that worry, and it made him angry with himself that even now, all he wanted to do was take care of her.

"Jackie gave her to me to look after," he greeted her. "How times change."

"I'd better be careful," she said with half a laugh. "I think I just imprinted myself on Mickey as a mother chicken."

And then she did the most cosmically stupid thing in the universe to do, reached for the baby. He caught her hand in the nick of time, even as the Reapers roared outside.

"No! Don't touch the baby." He kept his hand on her arm. "You're both the same person and that's the paradox and we don't want the paradox, not with those things outside. Any disturbance in time makes them stronger, and a paradox might let them in."

Rose looked worn, defeated. She could join the crowd. "I can't do anything right, can I?"

"Since you asked, no," he shot back. "So don't touch the baby!"

"I'm not stupid!"

"You could have fooled me!"

She looked away quickly, but not before he could see there were tears burning in her eyes. And his hearts hurt at seeing that. That bloody stupid emotion, love, was there again.

And he did the one thing he had never done before.

He swallowed. "I'm sorry."

She looked up at him, as surprised as he was at the apology.

"I wasn't really going to leave you on your own."

"I know," she said, certainty in her tone. She knew how important she was to him.

"Between you and me, I haven't got a plan. No idea. No way out." This was it. This was the end.

"You'll think of something," she said, proving just why she was so important. He needed her there to believe in him. Even if it was a false belief.

"The entire Earth's been sterilized. This, and other places like it is all that's left of the human race. We might hold out for a while, but we can't stop those creatures. They'll get through in the end. The walls aren't that old. And there's nothing I can do to stop them. There used to be laws to stop this kind of thing from happening, my people would have stopped this. But they're all gone. And now I'm going the same way." The last of his kind, all alone...

"If I had realized," she said, looking like she was going to cry.

But he wasn't alone. He had Rose Tyler, world destroyer. And the last thing he had left to live for.

"Just...tell me you're sorry," he said.

"I am." She was earnest. "I'm sorry."

He reached out a hand to touch her cheek and she looked up at him, her eyes saying how much she needed his forgiveness, his approval.

How much she needed him.

He smiled. Maybe love wasn't such a stupid emotion, after all.


End file.
